Jackson Lafferty

Mr. Speaker, all children in the NWT deserve the best possible care, nurturing and support, so that they can develop physically, emotionally, socially, culturally and spiritually. When these supports are in place right from the start, children are more likely to grow up to become healthy, productive members of their communities and society.

The departments of Health and Social Services and Education, Culture and Employment continue to work in partnership to ensure that there is increased access and participation in early childhood programs, enhanced quality of early childhood services and...

Mr. Speaker, my department is willing to do that, provide the detailed information on these particular mini iPads that will be distributed to new parents. We’ve done a lot of research not only on these mini iPads but on the overall Early Education Development Framework. The action plan we’ve developed over a three-year period to deal with the 22 recommendations. This is part of the recommendations that have been brought to our attention, that we need to provide tools and resources and that’s what we’re doing. So we’ll provide that information, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This ECD, Early Childhood Development Framework, overall does fall within that. We will be distributing iPads to new parents so they can have a tool that they can use with their newborns or children as well. That information was part of the action plan that we talked about last year, as well, and the money has been identified.

There are around 500 mini iPads that we’ve initiated as part of the overall plan. The overall cost of the iPads is around $160,000. These are some of the ongoing costs that we’ve identified.

We’ve also had, within our department, individuals that have...

In the Northwest Territories the number that we do have as part of the claimants is around 5,500, which gives us an idea of the issues that we have to deal with in the territory. We do have a breakdown by community, so I can provide that information to the Member and also other Members, as well, if they wish.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This is an area that we’ve collected information on the residential school survivors of the Northwest Territories. We’ve compiled that information and we worked very closely with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission when they first started off with their programming and voicing all those across the nation and national events, and even in the Northwest Territories, Inuvik. We do have that information. I can share that detailed information with the Member.

Mr. Speaker, over the years in my tenure as Minister of Education since 2007, I’ve visited so many schools in the Northwest Territories, and each school has their own incentive program to deal with absenteeism and also have regular attendance. I must commend those individual school boards for making that effort. We always support them as well.

Through the Education Renewal there are opportunities such as dual credit courses that we are starting to offer in the high school, whether it be early childhood focused or trades access programming that we are seriously looking at delivering to our high...

The quickest answer would be yes. Again, we are working with school boards to establish those kinds of support mechanisms. Again, poor attendance is a symptom of underlying issues, such as students being disengaged in learning, negative feelings within our schools towards students or families, a sense of not belonging, and the safety factor is a huge issue. It’s a priority for school boards. Our prime focus is on student well-being through safe and caring school practices, providing nutritious food in our school system. Those are fundamental and what we’ve heard from our elders and educators...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This particular area is a prime focus of my department to improve the overall education system in the Northwest Territories. The students learning and success will improve if attendance rates also improve. The Member is alluding to that. Ensuring students attend regularly is a shared responsibility between the school boards, ourselves as the Department of Education, families and the community at large.

We are doing what we can. Within Educational Renewable and Innovation, we want to focus on students’ well-being through safety and care as school practice and nutritious food...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. All of the above, yes. Those are key discussions we are currently having with the regional groups, the stakeholders and those people that are actively engaged with educating our kids; as well, the school boards, the leadership.

We’ve had regional forums, as well, when we spoke about Aboriginal Student Achievement and leading towards Early Childhood Development Framework, the 10-year framework, and also Education Renewal and Innovation. So there’s a lot of work ahead of us, and that will certainly capture what the Member’s raising the concerns over the years and we are...

We are discussing both of either the parents going into the school system or the teachers going into households to talk about attendance as well. Parents and guardians are encouraged to ensure their children attend school on a regular basis, Mr. Speaker. When an individual misses one day a week of school over the life of high school, it equals one year without school. That has a tremendous impact. So there should be attendance of 90 percent or more. That’s our target that we want to achieve. We are working very closely with the school boards to achieve that. We are developing various action...